Napoli, from Brescianini to McTominay: the sliding doors of the market that made Conte happy

Naples, May 1, 2025 - The sliding doors of the market, a blessing and a curse for fans. Often, on a hypothetical scale, the first area prevails, but at home Napoli never before has a crossroads, perhaps very underestimated at the time, which characterised the closing of the summer session, become so current. The protagonists are Marco Bresciani e Scott McTominay and, strange to say today, at that time the stock market and the prices of the two players were diametrically opposed to those of today. The first, from the school Milan, had shown himself in the previous season lived at Frosinone, not preventing its relegation but becoming one of its few points of light, as well as obviously the next market man: the second one was instead leaving the Manchester United, a reality light years away from the squadron of the past and from which many players were (and are) fleeing. The younger the Italian school Milan di 4 years and also more experienced in a championship like the Serie A who often presents the bill to those who come from abroad: the move seemed to have been made, before that U-turn that would have turned everything upside down. Even, with the famous benefit of hindsight, the entire fight for the Scudetto.  

The sliding doors between Brescianini and McTominay

  For a few hours Brescianini he was virtually a player of the Napoli, if not something more: the photos are memorable, with the blue scarf around the neck, Stuart Villa at the time when the medical examinations were underway that were supposed to transfer him from Frosinone to the Neapolitan club for approximately 12 million, between the fixed part and the bonus. The conditional is a must because, suddenly, the operation fell through. At the beginning there was talk of simple (so to speak) bureaucratic delays or problems that emerged during the ritual tests, or both, but reality would have revealed the forceful insertion of theAtalanta, in that much more tempting phase of the Napoli first of all thanks to the participation in the new Champions League at the launch with the suggestive new formula: not to mention that, at the time, the headquarters of Castel Volturno it was little more than a construction site where the new cycle was starting with Antonio Conte, for some the right man at the right time to rise from the ashes of the post-scudetto era, while for others almost a decoy used by Aurelio De Laurentiis to calm a still angry and disappointed square. Here too, hindsight would have given its verdict. The fact is that theAtalanta pick up Brescianini from Frosinone with the formula of the onerous loan from 2 million with a redemption obligation set at 10 million: practically the same figures that he was ready to shell out Napoli, called at that point to go hunting for a plan B. Often in sport, as in life, apparently fallback solutions turn out to be the right ones and so in the capital of Campania lands McTominay upon payment ofthe 30,5 million plus the 10% on the future resale to be recognized to the Manchester United: speaking of the fixed part alone, more than triple what it would have cost Brescianini. On the other hand, when you have the courage to fish from the Premier League, expecting savings is an illusion destined to remain such: the same story of the transfer of Romelu Lukaku, paid to the Chelsea BEN 30 million more 15 of bonuses and the 30% on future resale, confirms this thesis. Spending and performance in football do not always go hand in hand, and this is also taught by certain teams that today follow the Napoli top of the table, but in the case of McTominay there is the proverbial exception that proves the rule.

McTominay and Brescianini's season numbers

 The total loot in the goal area to date reads 12 goal (11 in the league and 1 in Coppa Italia) to 4 assists, to which we can add that innate leadership that has dragged the Azzurri through practically the entire arc of all the seasonal events. From the boom start to the decline between the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, passing through the injury emergency and the related changes of formation: the Scotsman has always been there, as a faithful praetorian of Tale, probably the real trigger that triggered the most successful market operation of all. Because, despite his not very young age, today the value of the class of '96 has at least doubled, while curiously in the meantime the decline of the star of Brescianini: 5 goal and 2 assists in a season marked by physical problems and without even the right spark having been ignited with Gian Piero GasperiniFootball is notoriously not a linear science nor one based on broad scope and nothing excludes that in the future the roles of the two players may be reversed, but today's reality issues a very clear verdict that gives full credit to John Manna, the sporting director who transformed a market disappointment into an opportunity: the Napoli he had a far-sighted vision and from this famous sliding doors, to quote a famous film, he gained a lot. Especially in this final rush of the season in which the fortunes of the Azzurri are being made practically by the only McTominayThe Scotsman scores, makes others score and makes them dream: only one letter changes but, in the meantime, the world changes for a team that is doing most of the work to overcome theInter he did it. The work is not finished though and if the commitments to Maradona against Genoa e Cagliari they don't seem particularly prohibitive, the external races of Lecce e Parma, between hunger for salvation points and historically difficult pitches, could still reserve some traps. Tale he knows it and he knows it too McTominay, at this moment the indispensable man par excellence: the former player plays Manchester United, plus another ten, one might say. And the pattern will be the same at Street of the Sea, where is the Napoli will show up to find that brilliance away from home that, despite the winning result, has not appeared even in Monza. Another race decided, needless to say, by a flash of genius McTominay, the best possible 'substitute' for the flash in the pan called Brescianini.

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